Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

The discovery of about 1,000 emaciated cows has prompted state officials to consider the unusual move of seizing a herd of cattle on a drought-stricken ranch near Fort Sumner. New Mexico Livestock Board officials served a search warrant at the sprawling Double V Ranch on May 17 and found at least 25 dead animals and others at risk of starving to death, the Albuquerque Journal reported on Friday. The owner, Richard Evans, was charged with 25 counts of cruelty to animals. A number listed for Double V Ranch was a fax number. No other listing was found for Evans. If a judge orders seizure of the cows, it would mark the first large herd taken by the New Mexico Livestock Board. "It is going to be a major deal," said Ray Baca, interim director of the board. "We're not actually funded for this kind of a major crisis." The board had 75 employees and a budget of $5.6 million in fiscal year 2013. Board inspector Barry Allen wrote in an affidavit for the search warrant that he observed 25 to 30 dead cattle at two locations on the ranch from public roadways during a May 14 inspection. About eight carcasses appeared to have been deteriorating for about six months, "indicative of the malnourishment being an ongoing issue on this ranch," Allen wrote. Live cattle at the ranch were in poor condition and nursing calves appeared stunted, he wrote. Allen also said he asked Evans about the condition of his cattle. "Mr. Evans indicated he was aware of the situation and reasoned that dry weather, and drought conditions, along with his wife's recent passing were all contributing factors to his inability to properly provide nourishment to livestock," Allen wrote...more

The Navajo Nation's "Mother of Justice" passed away this week. Evelyne E. Bradley, who served as one of the tribe's first-ever women judges, died Tuesday surrounded by friends and family at Fort Defiance Indian Hospital. She was 88. Bradley served as a district court judge from 1984 until her retirement in 1995. When she first was appointed as a judge by former Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah, she was 59 years old. "Apparently, some of the council delegates were giving her a hard time because they saw her white hair," said Evelyne Bradley's daughter, Francine Bradley, a retired police officer. "She said, Don't let this white hair and these wrinkles fool you.'" Evelyne Bradley served with the Ramah, Tuba City and Kayenta judicial districts in Arizona. She also served as acting chief justice from 1984 to 1985. After retirement, she was elected to the justice of the peace position for Navajo County in Kayenta, Ariz. "She was always firm. She always followed law, but she also treated the people like their mother," her daughter said. "She was mean but loving." That was partially because before the late Bradley was a judge, she had endured her own trials in life...more

Friday, May 24, 2013

Linda Poole can’t restrain herself when it comes to the
most-polarizing topic in Montana: the reintroduction of purebred bison.
As Poole sees it, the bison aren’t a cause. They’re cuddly fundraising
mascots helping the American Prairie Reserve to raise money to advance
its mission of land accumulation under the auspices of species
preservation. “If you can ignite people’s imaginations with free-roaming bison,” she says, “you get the bison to make your money.” The
bison in question are grazing about 20 miles (30 kilometers) away on
ranch land owned by the nonprofit Prairie Reserve, which has attracted
some $60 million from well-known Wall Street and Silicon Valley
financiers, Bloomberg Pursuits will report in its Summer 2013 issue. Its
plan is to buy out Poole’s neighbors and assemble as much as 3.5
million acres (1.4 million hectares) of contiguous private and public
land -- about a million acres more than Yellowstone National Park to the
south -- in a bid to build an American Serengeti, where the deer and
the antelope can again play free. The organization’s donor roll
reads like a who’s who of the ultrarich: billionaire candy heirs Forrest
Mars Jr. and his brother, John (combined net worth: $44 billion,
according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index); German retail baron
Erivan Haub ($4.9 billion); the foundation of Swiss medical device mogul
Hansjoerg Wyss ($12.4 billion); and Susan Packard Orr, daughter of the
co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and chairwoman of the David
& Lucile Packard Foundation, which has assets of $5.6 billion. After
cobbling the properties together, the group plans to populate the
sparsely settled scrubland with up to 10,000 genetically pure bison,
descendants of the original animals that last thundered across the
American frontier of the 1800s (as opposed to today’s tamer descendants,
which have been crossbred with cattle)...more

Local groups and governments are emptying
their piggy banks trying to find any available money to contribute to a
10-mile safety-improvement project on Highway 9 in Grand County. Their cash is crucial to getting the plan approved. High Country stakeholders have to put up
20 percent of the project’s $46 million bill to qualify for Colorado
Department of Transportation funding. The owner of the Blue Valley Ranch near
Kremmling, billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Jones, contributed $4
million to the match last month, leaving a local citizens’ group with $4
million left to raise from the public and local stakeholders before
CDOT’s deadline for project applications next month. The project aims to resolve an ongoing
problem with wildlife-related accidents on the rural highway north of
Silverthorne with roadside fencing and a series of under and overpasses
that will allow animals to safely cross the highway and access a
critical water source. The proposal also calls for the road to be
expanded with wider shoulders and room for bicycle lanes. The improvements, the result of a
collaboration between CDOT and the Division of Parks and Wildlife, are
designed to increase safety on one of the more dangerous stretches of
road in the region. In the last 20 years, 16 humans and hundreds of
animals have been killed in collisions on the segment Hwy. 9 through
Grand County...more

Nope, that's not the way to save human lives, or better the life for some humans.--Instead of building the overpass build some deer stands.--Declare open season.--Sell special hunting licenses.--Take the $46 million plus the license fees and use it to help the poor and disabled.For safety reasons they trap and kill wildlife at airports all the time. Why not on highways?

This would just be another "thinning project", so grab your guns, save lives and help the less fortunate all in one fell swoop.

A group of public education proponents say Utah's top political
leaders such as Gov. Gary Herbert would help the long-term interests of
students by dropping their "misguided" public lands fight with the
federal government. The network, called For Kids and Lands, held a press
conference Wednesday at Liberty Park, where they decried Utah's
"arrogant" battle with the federal government over ownership of certain
lands and titles to disputed roadways or trails. "Ultimately this public lands transfer will result in
marred and scarred landscapes for years to come," said James Thompson, a
Bingham High School teacher. "We set a poor example for our children by pursuing such courses of
action," reads a statement by the group that was delivered to Herbert's
office on Wednesday. But Herbert, Ivory and others behind the push say they have tried
tirelessly to reach reasonable solutions with the federal government in
cases such as disputed roads and the threatened endangered species
listing of the greater sage grouse, only to be stonewalled or rejected. "Just as Henry Ford offered his first customers a
choice of any color car they wanted as long as it was black, federal
land management agencies today provide flexibility in land management,"
Herbert told a Congressional subcommittee on Tuesday, "as long as they
do it the way Washington tells them."...more

If anything needs saving, its those kids at Bingham HS from one James Thompson. We can't afford to have those kids exposed to such stupidity.

Prairie community pastures and grasslands amounting to one and a half times the size of Prince Edward Island may soon be privatized, and ranchers’ reactions are mixed. In April 2012, Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz quietly announced that the federal government was divesting its interest in the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA). The PFRA was established in 1935, at the height of the “Dust Bowl,” to help combat erosion of pasture and farm land by managing the number of cattle grazing the land. Eighty-seven community pastures were established on land deemed unsuitable for cultivation; 62 in Saskatchewan, 26 in Manitoba, and one in Alberta. Since then, the PFRA has successfully preserved 2.3 million acres of pastureland, much of which is endangered tall grass prairie, while providing ranchers with well-managed land for grazing at reasonable rates. By 2018, the 87 PFRA-operated community pastures in Western Canada will be transferred to the provincial governments, beginning with 10 pastures this year in Saskatchewan. Not only will the provinces be saddled with this new responsibility, they are free to manage PFRA land as they see fit...more

Transferring lands from the feds to the provinces - Looks like the Canada is beating us to the punch.

The
Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is backing Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s
(D-Ariz) uphill battle to become the ranking Democrat on the Natural
Resources Committee.

“As Democrats, we rightly pride ourselves on
our diversity and awareness of what it means to represent Americans
from all backgrounds and walks of life,” states a “Dear Colleague”
letter from the caucus circulated Thursday. “Few of our colleagues understand and embody that diversity and awareness as well as Raul.”

That
slot will open up if current ranking member Rep. Edward Markey
(D-Mass.) is elected to the Massachusetts Senate seat vacated by
Secretary of State John Kerry.

Grijalva faces very long odds
against Peter Defazio (D-Ore.), who’s next in line for the ranking
member slot by seniority and has support from a number of key Democrats.

But
the CHC, in the letter, calls Grijalva “one of the strongest public
land advocates our party has seen in a long time,” and says he is a
“consensus builder” among Latino, Native American, Western,
environmental and progressive communities.

A coalition of conservation groups today filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the Bureau of Land Management under the Endangered Species Act for allocating more than 800,000 acres of federal public land in the Colorado River Basin to greenhouse-gas-intensive oil shale and tar-sands development without protecting endangered species and their habitat. On March 22 the BLM amended 10 resource-management plans in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, making 687,600 acres available for oil shale leasing and 132,100 acres available for tar-sands leasing. The BLM refused to conduct formal consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect endangered species, despite acknowledging likely impacts to Colorado pikeminnow, humpback chub, razorback sucker, Mexican spotted owl and many other threatened and endangered species...more

Sen. Ron Wyden is zeroing in on his plan for boosting logging on
federal lands in Western Oregon and helping rural counties beset by
money problems. The Oregon Democrat announced Thursday a more specific
framework for legislation to address complaints that so-called O&C
lands have not been turning out the level of money for timber counties
they did before logging was cut back to protect the northern spotted owl
and salmon from extinction. He said he hoped a bill would become law
before the end of the year. "We are building the kind of coalition that will
navigate Congress and get signed by the White House," Wyden said from
Washington, D.C. "It is not going to ignite an ideological war. It will
give us a chance to do what we do best in Oregon, which is to find a way
for people to get jobs in rural Oregon, boost timber harvest, and
respect the treasury." Wyden's proposal differs from another in the House in
one key area. Wyden's would give timber counties with below-average tax
rates incentives to help themselves. However, it does not spell out what
those incentives are...more

Domestic sheep and cattle have been taking hits from gray wolves this month in northeastern Oregon, and at least one young wolf has died, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Four sheep were confirmed killed, another was injured and still another is missing north of Pendleton, the department confirmed this week. Wolf tracks were found at the scene, and radio-collar data showed at least one wolf from the Umatilla River pack was in that area the night of the attacks, said biologists. Meanwhile, a rancher's yearling cow was killed by Imnaha Pack wolves in Wallowa County on May 15, the department reported. Evidence of at least two wolves was discovered at the scene, according to biologists. Five days earlier, ODFW biologists confirmed a rancher's calf was bitten on a hind leg by a wolf, but was expected to survive. Biologists found a radio-collared Wenaha pack wolf known as OR19 dead of unknown causes in the Sled Springs game management unit of Wallowa County May 19, the department reported. Foul play was not suspected...more

Despite efforts of the government to protect Armenian villagers from wolf attacks, the beasts continue to cause considerable damage to the country’s cattle-breeding rural communities. Only during this week three separate wolf attacks on domestic animals were reported in two provinces of Armenia, with more than 50 sheep killed by the predators. “We woke up at 5 in the morning to go and inspect our cattle-shed only to see 23 sheep mauled there. Some of them survived, we had a total of 31. It’s a big loss. We called our village mayor, who promised to do whatever is necessary. We’ll see what happens,” Zina Smoyan, a resident of the village of Sipan of the Aragatsotn province, told ArmeniaNow. The owner of the sheep killed by wolves says her large family has incurred a loss of about 1.3 million drams (or more than $3,100) based on the current prices of sheep in the village. Tengiz Mamoyan, the head of Sipan, which is a 324-member community of mainly Yezidis, tells ArmeniaNow that local farmers mainly breed cattle for meat and wool and they are apprehensive of wolf attacks. The village mayor says that a lot of such attacks happened in the past. In particular, 30 sheep were killed in a single attack in 2012. The family that lost the domestic animals then has not received assistance till today. On Monday a report came from the region of Lori where in the village of Amrakits wolves killed 25 sheep, the next day three sheep were killed by wolves in the town of Stepanavan...more

A rancher who killed a black bear outside Forsyth on Tuesday morning won’t face criminal charges, a Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokeswoman said Thursday. Bill Anderson, who ranches northeast of Forsyth, told FWP officials that he felt the bear was threatening cows when he shot the animal, which had been reported several times in the area since Sunday. The bear was probably searching for new territory. A game warden was en route with a tranquilizer when the bear was killed, said Cathy Stewart, information officer with the Miles City FWP office. Typically, FWP will haze or relocate black bears to more remote areas, Stewart said, but every encounter varies, and circumstances such as immediate danger, behavior and human safety are considered. In this case, after discussions with the Rosebud County attorney, it was decided not to prosecute Anderson. The hide and head of the 190-pound male bear were saved for educational purposes. Montana black bear populations are on the rise and sightings are expected to increase, Stewart said...more

The government will provide 2.46 billion pesos ($199 million) in assistance to ranchers affected by droughts and freezes in Mexico, Agriculture and Ranching Secretary Enrique Martinez y Martinez said. The assistance will go to ranchers in several states, Martinez said
in an address at the 77th National Ranching Organizations Assembly. Some of the funds will be used to guarantee loans totaling
5.7 billion pesos ($462 million), increasing total resources available
for ranchers to 8.16 billion pesos ($662 million), the agriculture
secretary said...more

The New Mexico Cattle Growers Association will hold its southwest
regional meeting in Socorro at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at Bodega
Burger Co., 606 California St. “Anyone who is interested or involved in the cattle business, whether
or not they are NMCGA members, is welcome to join us for this meeting,”
said Rex Wilson, NMCGA President, Carrizozo. “The program will include
important information for landowners and ranching families, and give
people a chance to learn more about the Association.” Getting information into the hands of ranchers will be the focus of
the meeting, with updates on and discussion on issues the 2013 New
Mexico Legislative session, endangered species listings, New Mexico
Department of Game and Fish issues, and a proposed National Wildlife
Refuge and Conservation partnership, Wilson said. The NMCGA’s Southwest Regional Meeting will be followed on May 29 by the
New Mexico Drought Workshop, hosted by the New Mexico Section of the
Society for Range Management in conjunction with the National Drought
Mitigation Center and the National Integrated Drought Information
System, in Socorro...more

Thursday, May 23, 2013

With about half of the country still suffering from
extreme drought, farmers and businesses in the Western United States are
looking at another hot, dry summer. And the country's water risk is a lot worse than most assessments suggest, according to a recent study from the Columbia University Water Center. Taking into account past patterns of drought and water
use, the Columbia study reveals that several major metro areas,
including New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, are at high
risk for water scarcity, along with the Great Plains agricultural belt
extending from North and South Dakota down to North Texas.

"All cities and all businesses require water, yet in many
regions, they need more water than is actually available — and that
demand is growing," said Upmanu Lall, director, Columbia Water Center.
"The new study reveals that certain areas face exposure to drought,
which will magnify existing problems of water supply and demand." The study notes
that a 99% population increase since 1950 combined with a 127% increase
in water use has further decreased water availability, making it
increasingly difficult to replenish water supplies after a drought. The report doesn't predict when or where the water
scarcity will become an issue. In New York and Washington, D.C., for
example, water is brought in from outside of the city from other
sources, which are typically plentiful. In other areas, however, the current drought — the worst
since the Great Depression — is already bringing water availability
issues to the fore. According to the most recent federal forecast,
about 48% of the contiguous U.S. is now experiencing moderate to
exceptional drought, down from a high of 60% at the beginning of the
year. The drought is expected to intensify in the West this summer, and
while conditions should "ease" in the Plains states, the drought is not
expected to end anytime soon and temperatures are expected to be
above-normal for most of the lower 48 this summer...more

Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a
half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water
so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every
minute. Last year, Mr. Yost was coaxing just 300 gallons from the earth, and
pumping up sand in order to do it. By harvest time, the grit had robbed
him of $20,000 worth of pumps and any hope of returning to the bumper
harvests of years past. “That’s prime land,” he said not long ago, gesturing from his pickup at
the stubby remains of last year’s crop. “I’ve raised 294 bushels of corn
an acre there before, with water and the Lord’s help.” Now, he said,
“it’s over.” The land, known as Section 35, sits atop the High Plains Aquifer, a
waterlogged jumble of sand, clay and gravel that begins beneath Wyoming
and South Dakota and stretches clear to the Texas Panhandle. The
aquifer’s northern reaches still hold enough water in many places to
last hundreds of years. But as one heads south, it is increasingly
tapped out, drained by ever more intensive farming and, lately, by
drought. Vast stretches of Texas farmland lying over the aquifer no longer
support irrigation. In west-central Kansas, up to a fifth of the
irrigated farmland along a 100-mile swath of the aquifer has already
gone dry. In many other places, there no longer is enough water to
supply farmers’ peak needs during Kansas’ scorching summers. And when the groundwater runs out, it is gone for good. Refilling the
aquifer would require hundreds, if not thousands, of years of rains. This is in many ways a slow-motion crisis — decades in the making,
imminent for some, years or decades away for others, hitting one farm
but leaving an adjacent one untouched. But across the rolling plains and
tarmac-flat farmland near the Kansas-Colorado border, the effects of
depletion are evident everywhere. Highway bridges span arid stream beds.
Most of the creeks and rivers that once veined the land have dried up
as 60 years of pumping have pulled groundwater levels down by scores and
even hundreds of feet...more

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the condition of the nation’s
winter wheat crop slipped modestly, while spring wheat planting was
making progress. As of May 19, winter wheat in the 18 major states was rated 31 percent
good to excellent, down a percent from the previous week, but well below
last year’s 58 percent. This year 41 percent of the crop was rated poor
to very poor, which compares to 14 percent last year. Just 31 percent
of the crop was rated good to excellent. This year’s poorer ratings are
due to lingering drought conditions and unseasonable cold spring
temperatures across much of the wheat growing region. Winter wheat heading in the 18 leading states as of May 19 was 43
percent, compared to 80 percent at the same time last year, and 62
percent for the five-year average. Spring wheat planting was estimated at 67 percent complete in the six
major states, well behind the 98 percent planted at this time last
year. The five-year average is 76 percent complete...more

The on-again, off-again protected status of wolves in the Lower 48
continues, as it appears that the expected de-listing of gray wolves in
the United States has been placed on indefinite hold. The Associated Press reported that the U.S. Fish and
Wildife Service indicated in filings in response to a lawsuit that the
removal of gray wolves from the endangered species list was not going to
happen soon, but the agency provided no further explanation. The status of the Mexican wolf, a separate species in Arizona and New
Mexico, remains unclear. A draft of the de-listing plan had called for
placing that population of animals on protected list. LA Times

More than 30 Mexican gray wolf enthusiasts and interested residents stepped into the shade at the Little Walnut Creek Picnic area for the 15th Anniversary Lobo Birthday Party on Sunday. Featuring guest speaker Dave Parsons, carnivore conservation biologist and former US Fish and Wildlife Service Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator, and live music by the Silver City String Beans, the event was held by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. According to the group's website, the Alliance is a nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection, restoration, and continued enjoyment of New Mexico's wild lands and wilderness areas. Before his speech, Kim McCreery, Regional Director and Staff Scientist for the Alliance had visitors welcome Parsons with a howl. Parsons was chosen as guest speaker because the event was held to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Mexican gray wolf's reintroduction project, which Parsons personally jump-started. Parsons said he got the job in 1990 when he discovered that the New Mexico Fish and Wildlife Service had done nothing to help reintroduce the Mexican gray wolf, which it was legally required to do since the wolf's identification as an endangered species 14 years earlier in 1976. He held the position of Recovery Coordinator from 1990 to 1999. In 1998, he said he saw the Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduce 11 Mexican gray wolves...more

Venezuela's National
Assembly has backed plans to import 39 million rolls of toilet paper, in
an effort to relieve a chronic shortage. Lawmakers voted to approve a $79m credit for the country's
ministry of commerce, which will also be used to buy toothpaste and
soap. The products are currently in short supply in Venezuelan shops. The oil-rich nation relies on imports, but currency controls have restricted its ability to pay for foreign goods. President Nicolas Maduro, who won a narrow majority in
April's presidential elections, maintains that the country's periodic
shortages of basic goods are the result of a conspiracy by the
opposition and rich sectors of society. Mr Maduro has vowed to uphold the legacy of his late
predecessor, Hugo Chavez, whose "21st-Century socialism" involved
sweeping nationalisation and extensive social programmes...more

Its a good thing socialism causes constipation or these folks would really be in trouble.

Monday’s morning commute started off horribly for drivers in the San
Gabriel Valley when a big rig carrying fruit overturned on the 210,
blocking lanes in both directions in Monrovia for most of the morning...more

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The ongoing efforts of those groups trying to prevent the U.S. Army from expanding its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS) gained another measure of success last week as the Military Construction Subcommittee of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted to continue the funding ban on “any action that relates to or promotes the expansion and size” of the PCMS, which is located in northeast Las Animas County. Because the U.S. Senate has not placed a permanent ban on expansion of PCMS, the House must act each year on the funding ban, according to information from “Not One More Acre!’’ (N1MA!), which is one of several groups opposed to expansion. The funding ban is part of a larger military construction budget bill that must first be passed by the full House of Representatives and then the U.S. Senate before it goes into effect. The funding ban was first instituted by Congress in 2007 to stop what opponents believe are secret plans to expand across 6.9 million acres of fragile prairie ecosystem. Jean Aguerre, president of N1MA!, announced the renewal of the sixth annual funding ban Wednesday, on the same day N1MA! filed its third challenge against the Army’s PCMS environmental disclosures in the past six weeks. The filing was made on N1MA!’s behalf by the Ewegen Law Firm of Denver. That protest, titled “Programmatic Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact for the Integrated Natural Resource Management Plan 2013-2017 for Fort Carson and the PCMS,” and other information can be found on the website www.not1moreacre.net Last Wednesday’s protest from N1MA! charged the Army with continuing to “piecemeal its plans for the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in an effort to sidestep basic requirements of the funding ban, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and a 2009 Federal District Court ruling that vacated the PCMS Transformation Record of Decision issued by the Army in its original efforts to expand the site.”...more

In two sharply worded letters sent to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell
today, prominent scientists argued for continued protections for gray
wolves across the lower 48 states and criticized a draft federal
proposal to remove those protections for being premature and failing to
follow the best available science. One of the letters came from the American Society of Mammalogists, the other from 16 prominent biologists. “The science simply doesn’t support removal of protections for
wolves,” said Dr. Brad Bergstrom with the American Society of
Mammalogists. “Wolves are altogether absent or barely beginning to
recover in large swathes of the country that still contain excellent
habitat.” Signatories to the letter include several scientists who conducted
research that’s relied on by the government in its draft proposed rule.
Those scientists are now criticizing the agency for misrepresenting
their work, stating: “Collectively, we represent many of the scientists
responsible for the research referenced in the draft rule,” and “We do
not believe that the rule reflects the conclusions of our work or the
best available science concerning the recovery of wolves.”...more

A new Idaho law that takes effect July 1 aims to prevent people from using drones to spy on farmers and ranchers. A bill that has been signed into law by Gov. Butch Otter restricts people from using drones to spy on anyone but was crafted specifically with agriculture in mind, said its sponsor, Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise. It's meant "to protect the agricultural community from unreasonable searches," said the Idaho Senate's assistant majority leader. The new law prevents any person, entity or state agency from using a drone to conduct surveillance or observation of private property "without reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal conduct." The bill allows individuals to use drones to take pictures or video of their own property, which is important for the growing number of farmers who want to use that tool to improve their operations, said north Idaho farmer Robert Blair. Former Idaho Attorney General Dave Leroy agreed with a policy expert from the American Civil Liberties Union that the Idaho law doesn't clearly state that it applies to federal agencies. Even if it did, it could be struck down by a judge on the grounds of federal pre-emption, a doctrine upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court that state laws are invalid when they conflict with federal laws, said ACLU Policy Strategist Allie Bohm. If it is tested in court on that issue, "it would be interesting to see what a court says," Bohm said. Winder said that while Bohm is correct on the pre-emption issue, "We are hopeful, however, that it does provide some protection of Idaho citizens from unlawful search by all levels of law enforcement, as guaranteed by the U.S. and Idaho constitutions." The bill's passage took on added meaning in early April when one of the nation's largest animal rights groups, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, announced it would use drones to spy on hunters and farmers...more

The United States is poised to introduce stricter rules on the labeling of meat imports this week, a move that is likely to heat up a simmering trade dispute with Canada and Mexico. Under new regulations that Washington says are aimed at complying with a World Trade Organization order, all meat sold in the United States must have labels that state where an animal was born, fed and slaughtered. Meat exporters in Canada and Mexico say the new rules would cut even deeper into cattle and hog shipments that have already slumped by as much as half in the last four years. The Canadian government has threatened a possible retaliatory strike against U.S. imports, and is hoping Mexico will join it. Instead of relaxing the rules, U.S. regulators proposed tougher requirements, arguing the changes would place the country in compliance with the WTO by applying the same rules to meat produced in the United States and other countries...more

Oil production in New Mexico has increased by nearly 50 percent over
the last three years, making it one of five western states that have
helped boost national production over the last three years.
Statistics
from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show onshore oil
production increased nationally by more than 2 million barrels a day -
or nearly two-thirds - between February 2010 and February 2013...more

New Mexico is slipping further into drought, having marked the driest two-year period in nearly 120 years of record-keeping. National weather forecasters and water managers shared the latest statistics on New Mexico's devastatingly dry conditions during a meeting Tuesday. They say the last 12- and 24-month periods have eclipsed even those dry times of the early 20th century and the 1950s. For the first four months of this year, New Mexico has seen less than half of its normal precipitation, with communities in the south and along the Rio Grande Valley seeing even less. Forecasters say the Santa Fe and Socorro areas have received just 17 percent of their normal snow and rainfall so far this year.
And with the snowpack now melted, officials say there is nothing to replenish the state's reservoirs. AP

Monday, May 20, 2013

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert
(R) recently signed a bill demanding that the federal government cede its
lands, which make up roughly two-thirds of the state's area, to the state.

Herbert, who also chairs
the Western Governors' Association, will be on Capitol Hill tomorrow to tell a
House Natural Resources subpanel that he thinks Utah and other states manage
their lands well, perhaps even better than the federal government.

The testimony could
highlight the differences between members of the conservative Western Caucus,
who believe the federal government should stay out of state land management,
and environmentalists, who worry that states will sell their protected lands
for oil and gas drilling.

Herbert is going to
"emphasize state- and local-based management techniques and practices are
effective," said Cody Stewart, Herbert's energy adviser and a former aide
to Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah). "The federal land management structure is an
outgrowth of 50 years of ideas. It may be well-intentioned, but the result is a
system that is inflexible, a system that is bureaucratic, a system that does
not encourage or even allow for innovation or flexibility."

Bishop, the chairman of
the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation, which is holding
the hearing, has often questioned whether the federal government should be
involved in land management, especially when the federal and state partnership
can be unwieldy.

The hearing will examine
"why not just let the states who have more of a vested interest in the
health and viability of the lands in the first place [manage them] ... [and see
if] it makes more sense for the states to have the authority and sole
responsibility to manage the land instead of it being a state-federal-type
situation," said Bishop spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin.

Environmentalists tend
to oppose these viewpoints because they fear states would open up the protected
lands to development.

"If somehow the
state would wrest control over public lands, it's clear they would be sold or
leased to the highest bidder," Steve Bloch, an attorney and energy program
director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said about Utah's land
transfer bills.

Environmentalist groups
from outside the state also argue that the federal lands aren't just Utah's.

"The federal lands
are lands that belong to all Americans, and the notion that the American people
take this wonderful resource and hand it over to a single state to do what they
want with it is simply nonsensical," said Paul Spitler, the director of
wilderness policy for the Wilderness Society. "These lands are a national
treasure, and they belong to all Americans, and they should stay that way for perpetuity."

Schedule: The
hearing is Tuesday, May 21, at 10:30 a.m. in 1324 Longworth.

Some
of the most important lessons I've learned about liberalism I've
learned from an unexpected source -- nature. Some of the clearest and
most instructive of those lessons have come from a U. S. Forest Service
"study area" in the central Arizona high desert.

In
1946, the U. S. Forest Service erected a fence around a portion of an
area exhausted by human overuse and misuse in this arid rangeland to
demonstrate one of the core principles of modern liberal
environmentalism -- that the best way to restore damaged land to
ecological health is to protect it from the impacts of humans. Today,
the Drake Exclosure (The Drake) has been under the beneficent care of
nature alone for more than 66 years, but...

Rather
than the revived Eden one would expect to find after 66 years of
environmental protection, much of the Drake, today, is as bare as a
well-used parking lot.

"Actually,
it looks pretty much the same as it did back in 1946," said a Forest
Service scientist studying the area, "but the trees were smaller."

Studies show that 90% of the plant
species that lived within its boundaries before it was protected no
longer live there. In fact, much of the land supports no plants at all,
and, judging from the lack of tracks and dung, not much wildlife either.

When
I bring environmentalists here and ask them what they would do to
remedy this apparent failure of one of their most basic principles,
invariably, they say they would continue to protect the area even though
that policy has failed for 66+ years.

Some even say that they would extend this failed policy beyond the Drake's protective fence.This is where things become even more revealing

Outside
the fence a local rancher has applied the basic conservative principle
that doing nothing is not always the best remedy for doing the wrong
thing, and...

If something doesn't work, do something else. Better yet, if something does work -- emulate it.

This
rancher manages his cattle as Nature manages her own grazers -- in
herds moving regularly in response to natural conditions and allowing
the land to recover before they return. On the land managed in this way,
Nature's "Yes" is as obvious as the "No" she has made so clear inside
the Drake. Outside the Drake's protective fence, on the land grazed by
the conservative rancher's cattle, a healthy stand of native grasses has
repopulated the land; the plant species that have ceased to exist
within the Drake can still be found; and there is plenty of evidence of
wildlife as well as livestock.

Environmentalists
react to this unexpected anomaly in a way that is revealing precisely
because it isn't surprising. First, the fact that the "protected" land
inside the exclosure is essentially morbid and desertified, doesn't
shake their faith in their prescription for a second. In fact, they
don't really seem to care about the condition of the land inside or outside the exclosure.

What
they do seem to care about is that this inconvenient failure might put
their liberal prescription -- that we ought to protect as much of nature
as possible -- in jeopardy.

Jennifer Phillippi’s grandparents started producing lumber in this corner of Oregon timber country in 1922, when a man could set up a mill, log the trees within range of a team of horses, and move the mill to a new stand when those trees ran out. In those days the forests were full, timber and work both plentiful. But now what was the last sawmill standing in Josephine County has hit the end of the line after yet another timber family had to give up hope the lands surrounding them could provide enough of the big pine logs they needed to stay afloat. Phillippi and her husband, Link, are spending their last days at the helm of Rough & Ready Lumber handing out severance checks and hugs to their 88 employees, many of them also the third generation in the mill. The sawmill shut down in mid-April and will ship the last finished lumber in June. “What they tell me is, one door closes and another door opens,” said Ron Hults, 50, who worked at the mill for 18 years operating the various machinery it takes to turn a rough log into a smooth piece of lumber. “I’m waiting for the open door.” So are many of the nearly 1 million who live in Oregon’s timber country. After World War II, the U.S. Forest Service began selling timber to build homes for baby boomers. Bulldozers carved roads into the hillsides to haul out the logs. Mills operated round-the-clock. No tree was too big to be cut. “You could get a job anyplace,” said Jim Ford, 85, of Grants Pass, the Josephine County seat. Ford quit high school during World War II to work as a logger. At 14, he threw steel cables around giant logs so they could be hauled and loaded onto trucks. After the war, he and his brothers started their own logging business. It closed in 1993. All that remains now are faded photos of logging trucks and a collection of hard hats, chain saws and pulleys hanging from the walls and ceiling of the shop behind Ford’s house...more

The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan was greeted with great political fanfare. It was supposed to "end the timber wars" by providing a stable and reliable long-term supply of timber volume for industry while protecting the northern spotted owl habitat and population. However, the plan has proven to be a colossal failure. The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service have come nowhere near meeting their allowable annual sale quantity. Timber sales are continually contested and the spotted owl population continues to decline even with drastic timber reductions in harvest volume. Now the barred owl, a natural enemy for the spotted owl, has begun displacing the spotted owls. Mills must have a stable and reliable quantity of timber volume to survive. Because of lack of sufficient volume from federal lands, several mills have closed, leaving two local survivors. In attempts to obtain agreement and satisfaction regarding public agencies, industry and the environmentalists, a few "new timber sale prescriptions" have been developed in cooperation with academia. These sales are attempts to create jobs and get timber volume to mills while protecting the environment. These prescription sales, too, have been failures because they have not met the overall intended results. Thus, not everyone is satisfied with them. These new attempts have been very expensive, have produced very little commercial timber and too little revenue to be profitable to the counties Thus, they haven't met the legal requirements of the O&C Act of 1937 to produce revenue for the local counties. Apparently the only timber sales acceptable to environmentalists are thinning of small-diameter trees near homes to reduce wildfire hazards. Such sales produce little commercial timber and are either below cost or provide very little revenue. Such "treatments" produce political, not professional or scientific, overall forest management...more

...People who think bison should roam freely in America have always had a problem with Turner. But in 2010, when Montana governor Brian Schweitzer requested that he set aside a temporary home for 80 Yellowstone bison that had been quarantined so wildlife managers could see if they were free of the cow-turned-bison disease brucellosis, critics went crazy. It wasn't just that the feds were leasing something owned by the public to a private businessman who makes a portion of his living selling buffalo meat to his 44 Ted's Montana Grills. It was that in exchange for caring for the bison for a five-year period, Turner would get to keep 75 percent of the herd's calves for conservation. Recently, four of the biggest critics filed a lawsuit against the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, contending that the animals are a public resource that should be shielded from privatization. According to the Billings Gazette, the suits' plaintiffs said the state should either move the animals onto public land or pay Turner to take care of them rather than give up their young as compensation. But last week, Gallatin County Judge Holly Brown dismissed the request, stating that state lawmakers gave the the state wildlife agency broad decision-making authority in the management of bison. Lucky for Turner. He now gets the babies of some of America's most "heritage rich" buffalos. In his defense, he may actually be helping to contribute to a brucellosis-free bison herd in Yellowstone...more

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Forest Service to consult with wildlife officials to ensure the agency takes adequate measures to protect Canada lynx in portions of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen said in Thursday’s order that the Forest Service violated federal regulations by not revising its management plans for 11 national forests to take lynx habitat into consideration. Canada lynx are a threatened species believed to number in the hundreds in the continental U.S. In 2009, the Forest Service designated 39,000 square miles across the U.S. as critical habitat for the rarely seen predator, which is roughly the size of a bobcat and feeds primarily on snowshoe hares. Critical habitat designations can determine what activities are allowed on forest land. Plaintiffs from the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center said Christensen’s ruling will ensure adequate plans are in place to protect lynx across 10 million acres. The government is being sued separately to come up with a recovery plan for lynx, which were listed as threatened in 2000.

Montana wildlife officials on Tuesday rejected allegations that a
Montana rancher and hunting guide illegally baited wolves by leaving
sheep carcasses piled up on his property near Yellowstone National Park. Wildlife advocates had accused William Hoppe, who lives near
Gardiner, of intentionally luring the predators to his land and shooting
one after wolves killed at least 13 of his sheep. Hoppe is a long-time
critic of the reintroduction of wolves to the Yellowstone area two
decades ago. But Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks officials said an investigation
determined Hoppe buried all but one of the sheep that were killed by
wolves on April 24. The remaining animal was dragged away by a grizzly
bear. "We certainly understand there has been a lot of talk about this
story, but we have to go with the facts on the ground," FWP spokeswoman
Andrea Jones said, adding that there was no evidence of baiting.Hoppe obtained two shoot-on-site kill permits from the state
following the sheep attack. He used one to kill a wolf from Yellowstone
National Park last week and has offered to forfeit the second. He said he's received two death threats and harassing phone calls and
emails after the baiting accusation was leveled by representatives of
Wolves of the Rockies and the National Wolfwatcher Coalition...more

The owner of the Flat Top Ranch
near Carey said Wednesday that he recently lost more than two dozen
sheep to wolves over a two-day period. John Peavey said numerous lambs and ewes were killed by wolves on Friday, May 10, and Sunday, May 12. Idaho Wildlife Services State Director Todd
Grimm said Thursday that the final mortality count was at 31—18 lambs
and 13 ewes. Peavey said a Fish and Game representative
determined that wolves were to blame, rather than another type of
predator. As a result, Grimm said, Idaho Wildlife Services is carrying
out a kill order on “at least” two wolves in the area. Peavey said the sheep are currently vulnerable
because they are in lambing season, when young lambs and birthing ewes
can become easy prey. One of the ewes killed was in the process of
birthing triplets, he said, and one of the lambs killed was the
first—and only—one of the triplets to be born. “The guy was probably out of the womb five minutes,” he said. “It was really a heartbreaker.” Peavey said the lamb, the ewe and the two unborn triplets were killed Sunday morning...more

In a quick conversation with BB Ranch
butcher William von Schneidau recently, he said to me, “Oh, and, by the
way, we are feeding our pigs marijuana now. We’re calling them pot
pigs.” At first I didn’t think I heard him right.
Then I thought he might be joking. But he wasn’t. The Pike Place Market
butcher shop is most definitely adding “weed to the feed,” as Schneidau
says in this getting-funky-with-it video about his recent Pot Pig Gig dinner. Seattle got its first taste of marijuana-fed
pigs at this event in March, when BB Ranch served a head-to-tail menu of
swine fed on stems, leaves, and root bulbs from Top Shelf Organic, a medical marijuana co-op. So it’s not like the pigs were smoking a
hookah or grazing on buds. All farms have excess, even the
marijuana-growing kind, and with the new legality of the drug, it made
sense to him to try and help out by finding a use for those cast-off
bits of plant. It sounds like an idea conceived by someone holding a
bong in a hazy basement, but hey, sustainability comes in all forms. Mixing the fresh herby greens to the regular
pig slop adds fiber to the pigs' diet and reportedly gave the meat a
more savory bite. Von Schneidau hopes to do a blind taste test soon to
compare pot-fed pork's flavor with the traditional variety. He currently
has a pot prosciutto curing at BB Ranch, if you're curious for a taste...more

Grass fed beef just took on a whole new meaning.

Come on over to my place if you want some marijuana meatloaf or a "pot" roast.

Burton C. Mossman stood barely 5 feet 8 inches tall with his boots on, and weighed 160 pounds after a steak dinner. But he was tough as nails. In 1901, Arizona Territorial Gov. Nathan O. Murphy met with Mossman, a prominent cattle rancher, at a saloon in Holbrook to ask him to be captain of the newly formed Arizona Rangers. The Rangers' mission was to rid the Arizona Territory of cattle rustlers, horse thieves and murderers. Mossman accepted the position and chose a sergeant and 12 men, including veteran Rough Riders, lawmen and able residents. In the first 12 months, these men rid the territory of more than 125 wanted outlaws, and scared many more across the border. Mossman is most famous for his bold and daring manhunt of one of the most wanted men in the history of Arizona and Sonora, Mexico: Augustine Chacon, who had murdered 15 Americans and 37 Mexicans. Crossing the border unarmed and with the help of Burt Alvord, an outlaw who agreed to help in hopes of getting a lighter sentence, Mossman brought Chacon into the gallows. In the eight years the Arizona Rough Riders were active, they were very effective at stopping crime and driving out criminals. Ultimately, they did so well they put themselves out of business. Most of them became successful businessmen and prominent citizens. Mossman was no exception. Following the Rangers, he spent many years ranching in northern Mexico and the United States, and finally hung up his saddle in 1944. For Mossman, his final career was a continuation of his first. He was born in 1867 to George W., a Civil War veteran, and Anna (West) Mossman in Aurora, Ill. He was reared in Minnesota, but by age 16 he had come to the Territory of New Mexico. At 21 he was in charge of his first cattle spread, and nine years later was he managing the 2 million acres of the Hash Knife Ranch in Northern Arizona, near Holbrook. Like most real cowboys, Mossman never died, he just faded away in 1956, in Roswell, N.M. He is buried in Kansas City, Mo...more

...You'd have to go all the way back to the 1800s to come to a full
appreciation of the bond between man and horse in West Texas. Stories
abound of the bonds formed between horses and their riders in the
earliest days of history and Midland was certainly no exception. There
wasn't a race involved, nor was there a game of polo that strengthened
the ties, but simply a story of survival and instinct -- one wrong and
one right. It was 1888, and pioneer rancher O.B. Holt found
himself in a brutal blizzard unable to judge distance or direction
because of the wintry conditions. In an interview with J. Evetts Haley in 1927, now
in the Haley Memorial Library archives, Holt explained his dire, near
death experience and how he showed gratitude to the horse that saved his
life. "I have been lost in snow storms to where I gave up," Holt told Haley. "I had one horse that saved my life." Holt spoke of how, being unable to determine his
whereabouts, he tried to guide his mount in a direction opposite from
where shelter was. The snow was a foot deep and when night hit Holt
guessed he was about 10 miles from his ranch. "I tried to pull him in one direction but he kept
wanting to go in another," Holt said. "I finally gave him his head. I
could hardly get off him when he reached camp. I had two little rooms
and opened the door and let him in. The first thing I did was throw a
suggan (covering) over him. I took him into the kitchen, pulled off the
saddle and kept him there all night." When he sold his ranch, he gave the buyers everything -- except the horse. He would keep it another 25 years...more

Sunday, May 19, 2013

When Malcolm X’s grandson was beaten to death in a seedy Mexico City bar last week his name joined the hundreds of US citizens who have been murdered in this country in recent years. Excluding terror attacks and US soldiers killed in action, Mexico has seen more homicides of Americans than any other part of the world in the past decade, according to an analysis of US State Department figures. At least 648 American citizens were murdered in Mexico between October 2002 and December 2012 -- the latest available data -- representing more than 40 per cent of the almost 1,600 victims worldwide over the same period...more

There are at least 26,121 people who went missing in the past six years in Mexico, according to President Enrique Peña Nieto's government, and now they are going to do something about it. Mexico's government says it will create a special investigative unit to search for the missing, heeding a request by relatives of the disappeared who have been on a hunger strike for nine days. Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam made the announcement Friday after meeting with a group of parents who have been on a hunger strike and living in tents outside his office. Murillo Karam says the special unit will guarantee that the same investigators and forensic experts remain on the cases until they are completed. He said more details about the new unit will be made public in a week. AP